Have just finished what should have been a 3 hour job that turned into 5.The firm has a nice little office with 3-4 staff. Started off quite nicely working my way round the room systematically until I get to the pod of desks, where I find one mass of cables. After unplugging everything (not happy bunnies at this point as they only wanted one PC off at a time) and untangling everything, I found that they had daisy chained 4 extension leads! Not only that, but two were a 4 gang and two were a 6 gang and each was overloaded. The worst plug had actually melted into the ext lead and needed to be prised apart. The best of it was that they had plenty of wall sockets (with spare) for all the appliances.Think they had just become complacent and overlooked what was happening.

What's your worst?

Last edited by LeeTurtle on Tue Jun 07, 2011 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

Had a similar job recently, however the extension lead cables were boxed in behind the desks and then the cables fed through holes drilled through stud wall and into the next office. Spoke to the office manager, told him I couldnt test them unless he wants to pay my standard hourly rate and made a note on his report.

In terms of being hazzardous. Recently came across a 32amp appliance where the socket and plug ends had been installed the wrong way round. That is to say that the plug was fitted to the supply and the socket to the appliance. And they say that this PAT is a waste of time.

Well that could have been fun, their luck nobody has been fried let alone yourself!Agree with you, sometimes it is a battle to get businesses to understand that having PAT inspections is an essential part of their business.Check out the pic, had this one today... (not the manicure!)

They just get better and better.This one is at a Dentist!! Nicely overloading the APC Battery Backup with the home made IEC into the 6 gang extension lead and then plug top feeding a junction box supplying another 7 items!!But hey, it’s ok, it’s a surge protected extension!

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I think my worst was a 13A extension reel from a well-known DIY chain - own-brand - where the earth wire wasn't connected in the plug. The reel was fairly new and showed no signs of having been tampered with. That could have been the difference between life and death!

Back in the day (we're talking 15+ yrs ago), the student union I worked at (event lighting & sound) decided to instigate a PAT regime for the whole building. We already did in-service inspection & test on the entertainments lighting and sound kit, but this was expanded to include offices, bars, catering, union shop, printers, cleaners equipment, the lot. A big, if boring, slice of work over the summer vacation for me and my mate, using a PAT1000S, and Shire Systems Safety 1st records software.At the end of the testing, we had a massive cardboard box full of confiscated appliances, mainly damaged extension leads, chopped-off plugs etc., plus a load of bigger fails that couldn't fit in the box. It was all kept to show to management, who were a bit sceptical of the benefits of doing (or rather paying for) the testing.

Two howlers have stayed in my mind still:

A big metal pie warming cabinet in one of the catering outlets was found to have the plug wired brown to N, blue to E and green/yellow to L (if memory serves). It still worked, but was a disaster waiting to happen. One of the union porters had changed the plug, and didn't really have the first clue what he was doing. He was bawled out by his line manager, and explicitly banned from attempting any further electrical work of any kind.